# data[].attributes.body
Filmmaking Terms Period One

# data[].attributes.body
https://sites.google.com/a/bvsd.org/technology-rocks/multimedia-prod_digital-film

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
MultiMedia Production: Digital Filmmaking - Technology Rocks!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTIONS-Digital Filmmaking: In this course students will learn how to write, direct, and, produce their own short film using digital cameras and high powered movie editing software such as I-Movie and Final Cut. We will focus on effective script writing, cinematography, and soundtracks as students learn the art of digital film making.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself." Steven Spielberg

Have you ever thought about being the Steven Spielberg of your school, by making excellent films about various events? School plays, football matches, graduation events, prom nights, excursions, success stories, weekly news, interviews... We live in a visual age, where pretty much everything is defined by the Flicker frequency, and filmmaking has become a necessity when it comes to promoting digital literacy skills to young people. That is why our Digital Literacy for EFL Students course offers this filmmaking and video editing workshop to help students gain more knowledge and improve their skills in the visual arts.

You may think that filmmaking and video editing in a school setting would be a very complicated thing to do. Of course, it requires some experience in filmmaking to be able to run a workshop of this kind. However, you probably have enough basic gear in your school to get started. Please check the links (10.Filmmaking and 11.Filmmaking Guide) available on our Padlet - Digital Literacy for EFL Students for more information.

Here are some tips to make sure students get good results, and to make the process manageable and enjoyable:

Keep it short - a number one rule for good filmmaking in school is to start with short and simple films before you try making longer films.

Build skills - start with simple activities to demonstrate different shots, and how to use them, as well as how to work together in filmmaking teams.

Be clear about the film - explain what kind of film you are going to make, define your target audience.

Cut the choice - instead of going into complicated solutions and dealing with unnecessary details, set really tight limits, for instance: time limit, limited number of close-ups, long shots, mid shots, angles, music etc.

Work with your gear - you should not get frustrated if your equipment is not up to the job, so if you do not have a microphone do not try and record live sound, make the soundtrack on your computer or tablet afterwards, or if you only have a basic camera, shoot outside or in rooms with plenty of light, and if you do not have a tripod, then zoom out and get in close.

For the purpose of the Digital Literacy for EFL Students course we decided to make a short film interviewing the students about their experiences with the training, and the lessons learned. What we needed to prepare beforehand was the script for the students' interviews. We decided to focus on these questions: What do you think about digital literacy in the 21 st century? What did you learn on the Digital Literacy for EFL Students course? Would you recommend it? Why?

We created a basic storyboard, and shooting schedule to list what was going to be filmed, where and when. We also discussed the various shot sizes such as: an extreme closeup (for important details), a closeup (showing parts of the subject), a mid shot (showing the top half of the body), a long shot (showing someone from head to foot), and extreme long shot (as a background video to show the setting).

Then we discussed camera angles such as: low angle, high angle, and birdseye angle; and we also explained what camera movements can be used to make the film more dynamic, such as: tracking shots (which can be done forward, backward or sideways), a tilt shot (it turns the camera upwards or downwards), with a pan (the camera turns left or right to scan a scene or follow a movement) etc.

The cameras we used during the recording stage were: Nikon D3100, GoPro Hero 3 (Silver Edition), and Phantom 2 Vision Plus Drone.

The next stage will be video editing on Final Cut. Check our next blog post for more details about the editing stage.

Have you ever recorded shots for a film? How easy/difficult was it? What cameras have you used? Have you ever created a storyboard?

Please share your answers in the comments section.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself."

# data[].attributes.body
Video Project planner

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This academic year, LTI funded two projects to integrate student-produced videos in courses through their LTI Grant scheme. Outcomes and findings from their evaluation provide some interesting reflections on how they can be used to bring added value to the learning - and teaching!- experience.

The Projects

Using Film in Urban Planning Analysis - Nancy Holman, Geography and Environment

As part of the Urban Policy and Planning course, students produce written work alongside a group presentation and a short interpretive film of neighbourhood fieldwork. Film-making started two years ago with students using their own devices. Last year they were helped by an LSE alumnus who is now a filmmaker to better understand the process of storytelling and how to use the equipment. This year, Nancy applied for DSLR kits to improve the quality of the work produced. An evening screening of the 8 short films produced by the project groups was also organised at the LSE, at the end of which a panel of ethnographers and filmmakers judged the films and awarded three prizes: Best Overall Film, Best Cinematography and Judges Choice.

Narrating the Death (and Life?) of Multiculturalism - Jennifer Jackson-Preece, European Institute

Jennifer wanted to "enliven the end of term debate on multiculturalism" in her Identity, Community and the 'Problem' of Minorities course by replacing group presentations with short films narrating the students' take on the theme. Instructor videos were made and presented during seminars and resources on making short documentaries were made available on the course's Moodle page. Students then worked in groups for three weeks to produce their short films. The videos were screened during the last session of the course and were followed by a debate.

Reflections

Why videos?

In the Geography project, the combination of written work and film allowed students to think about spaces both on paper and visually, which according to Nancy is " a core transferable skill our students need to develop". She also believes that the video exercise had a "knock on benefit" on students' summative essays, which she observed were clearer and more thoughtful.

This is what she highlighted in the description of the project for students:

In the European Institute project, the resulting videos were used as a starter for a class debate. Videos were favoured in place of the usual presentations as Jennifer wanted students to approach the end of term presentations "from a fresh perspective that facilitates greater creativity and ownership of ideas "

In both cases video production have been a good way of engaging student with the course and material and resulted in a final product that can be used as a basis for discussion or examples and inspiration for the future cohorts.

"It would also enable student cohorts on EU 458 to 'speak' to each other across time through the creation of a permanent film archive on the EU 458 Moodle page" - Jennifer Jackson-Preece

They are also easy to be shared and presented to the wider institution and community. Students from the Urban Planning group attended the JustSpace conference on opportunity areas where they showed their films.

Students also got to develop useful transferable skills in the process: managing a group project, collecting/gathering/presenting information, video production and editing to name a few.

Embedding video-production into the course

Nancy's project was seen as a way to "further embed [...] practical experiences [walks, fieldtrips] within the programme" while it would "enable students to gain a different/complementary perspective on the concept of narrative" for Jennifer. It was thus important for both to i ntegrate video production as (part of) a final task towards which students worked during the course instead of as a stand alone activity.

As highlighted in the description of the project, video production was gradually introduced in the Geography course. Students received the help from a professional filmmaker and were able to familiarise themselves with the equipment during a trip to Manchester in the first part of the year.

In Jennifer's project, students received training in video-making face to face during seminars and through resources made available on Moodle.

Students were also made aware of the various ethical, safety and copyright considerations when filming, interviewing and using material other than theirs.

<= Resources on video production made available to EU458 students on Moodle

In terms of assessment, even though the video production exercise was formative for both projects, students received feedback on their work. Geography students received feedback on their overall presentation that included comments on the style and overall message of their video. Students from the European Institute course were given a template of the feedback form to be aware of the assessment criteria when producing their videos. They included design (style and organisation, creativity) and message (content, quality, overall impression).

Next year group videos will count as 50% of the EU458 summative assessment and adjustments will be made to the course to support this.

Interested in using student-produced content in your teaching?

Have a look at the past Students as Producers projects in our LTIG Grant Winners section or get in touch with us!

Read about LSE Innovator William Callahan 's successful implementation of student-produced videos in his IR318 Visual International Politics Course.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This academic year, LTI funded two projects to integrate student-produced videos in courses through their LTI Grant scheme. Outcomes and findings from their evaluation provide some interesting reflections on how they can be used to bring added value to the learning - and teaching!- experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1899 1903 1895 1920 Editing Continuity Techniques How Editing Began- Timeline The Lumiere Brothers were French inventors and pioneer manufacturers of photographic equipment who devised an early motion-picture camera and projector called the Cinématographe in 1895 Camera Editing- At the time when film making began- Films at this time would consist of one single shot.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I kept hearing about what a great tool iMovie can be in the classroom. I finally decided to put it to the test by making an iMovie video.

As we began our 5th day of school this week, I used my iPad to shoot a short video clip of each child sharing their favorite thing about school so far. Their responses were adorable! I knew that I wanted to find a creative medium to share the videos. I initially thought I might turn this into another augmented reality activity for back to school night where the parents would scan a picture of the child's face which would then trigger the video clip. Unfortunately, a quick experiment with Aurasma suggested that the pictures of the children's faces would not make good trigger images. That's when I started searching for a way to compile the clips into some sort of montage. As I flipped through a variety of video apps I remembered that I'd heard good things about iMovie. I remembered that people felt it was well worth the $4.99 price tag. I took the plunge and produced what I have to say, turned out to be an absolutely adorable movie that we were able to share with parents on our class website and at our back to school night. I so wish I could share it here, but it would be too hard to edit it in a way that would protect my students' privacy. What we ended up with was a collection of video clips of each child sharing their favorite thing about school so far. The clips flowed smoothly from one to the next and there was sweet, happy background music which really set the tone, but didn't overshadow the children's own words. We loved the final product so much that we even made a second one for our Kindergarten classes!

Here's what I liked about iMovie:

It was fairly simple to use. I've made photo slideshows in iPhoto before, and the process was similar. You simply drag the clips you want to use to add them to the video.

I loved being able to add "background music" to the video clips. There were a variety of generic tunes you could choose from, or you could choose something from your iTunes libary. All you had to do to add the music was to click on the musical note icon you see in the picture above.

I liked being able to edit the clips within the app. You simply slide the yellow dots to make the clip longer or shorter.

I also liked being able to add words to each clip. Some of my students were a little hard to hear, so I was able to create "captions."

I like the way the clips faded gently from one to the next.

I liked being able to create title and ending scenes. By double clicking on a clip, you could get to a dialog box that would let you add words to your title and ending scenes. You can also click the settings wheel on the top right to vary the theme of the words you've added.

Things that didn't quite work (but might if I had more practice):

I couldn't figure out how to gently fade out the background music. The video ends rather abruptly.

It was a little tricky to precisely edit each video clip. I had to sort of guess where I wanted to cut each video. I've seen some editing programs that let you edit each frame.

Bottom Line:

Overall I don't regret my $4.99 purchase in the least! The video we produced today was worth the purchase price alone. I am excited to experiment further with the app to see what else we can create.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Make an iMovie Video on your iPad for Back to School - Technology In Early Childhood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I kept hearing about what a great tool iMovie can be in the classroom. I finally decided to put it to the test by making an iMovie video. As we began our 5th day of school this week, I used my iPad to shoot a short video clip of each child sharing their favorite thing about school so far.